Confused...

Hi Kathi!! I'm so glad you're here . I can understand some of your confusion about navigating the site but I think that navigation is pretty specific to the topic you want to know more about. For example, there are a lot of forums on cookie recipe issues (Recipe rescue), royal icing problems, where to find certain types of decorating tools and even machines for those who have a business of selling cookies. One of my favorite places to go is to the tutorials (of which there are many and directed to different levels of cookie decorating experience). There are so many very detailed explanations (with examples) of how to decorate using a variety of techniques (e.g. wet-on-wet, marbling, airbrushing, crackle cookies, wafer paper, etc).

When I want to look for something specific I click on the magnifying glass on the top right of the navigation bar and a field will pop up where you can type in what you are searching for (tutorials for beginner, intermediate and advanced cookiers, royal icing recipes, problems with royal icing such as the colors bleeding into each other, baby shower cookies, etc.). There's such a vast amount of information available here but there's really not a place that's used a lot for cookiers chatting amongst themselves in real time. That would be a nice thing as a LOT of cookiers are very generous with sharing how to do specific techniques. Yes, there are some who don't answer questions about how to achieve a look in a cookie they've decorated, but they are few and far between. For cookie cutters there are a multitude of sites. You can look on Amazon.com, cookiecuttercompany.com, CheapCookieCutters.com, cookiecutterkdom.com, Coppergifts.com, KarensCookies.net, annclarkcookiecutters.com, and so many more. Here's a shark cookie cutter for you: https://www.amazon.com/Ann-Cla...Cutter/dp/B00KJ8M78Q. Really cute. Please don't hesitate to ask any questions at all!! This is a very active community and I love it here . If you want to you can go to my profile and contact me directly with any questions and I'll be happy to answer at any time!!

Another thought is that Julia Usher has done a ton of tutorials from everything such as baking cookies for decorating, royal icing consistencies, stamping on cookies, stenciling, marbling, etc. There are a vast number of tutorials by Julia on her UTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/JuliaMUsher.

I hope this answers some of your questions. I have certainly felt intimidated by and by the level of talent of the cookiers who post their cookies here. But this site is about sharing and learning, not competing .

Welcome!!

Carol (Cookies Fantastique ~ by Carol)

Hi, Kathi. First, welcome to the site. I'm sorry to hear you're confused about the navigation. I've tried my best to make it as clear as possible, but there's tons of information here, so it may take a little while to find it all.

Here are some tips for getting started on the site . . . If you haven't read the About section and the FAQ section (under About) yet, then I suggest you do that, as they explain in great detail where you can find various content, and our various posting guidelines.

But quickly, the forums are for posting questions to other members (one question at a time is preferred, with the topic of the question as your title). (For example, you have several question embedded in this post, and they will be very difficult for people to find later, given how the post has been titled and tagged.) The Clips area is for posting photos or videos. The blog is where our contributors post in-depth tutorials, which you can read by clicking on the Blog in the main navigation line and then on the relevant "tutorial" blog collections on the right side of the site.

99.99% of all content that is posted stays on the site forever. Our home page features the content that was most popular in the last 24 hours, but if you click on the links under any of the photo galleries on the home page, you will see all the clips ever posted to the site, listed from most to least recent. You can also access this information by directly clicking  on "Clips" in the main navigation line.

There are also several start-up posts in the forums (which were also sent in your site sign-up letter) that are intended to give newcomers an overview of the site. I'd recommend reading them as well, and I've copied some of them below.

About page: https://cookieconnection.juliausher.com/pages/about
FAQ page: https://cookieconnection.juliausher.com/pages/sitefaq
Posting Guidelines for Clips (aka Images): http://cookieconnection.juliau...READ-BEFORE-YOU-POST
Adjusting Your Email Notifications: http://cookieconnection.juliau...-email-notifications
Quick link to all on-site tutorials: http://cookieconnection.juliau...hnique-tutorials-all

Hope this all helps, and have fun on the site!

Cookies Fantastique by Carol posted:

Hi Kathi!! I'm so glad you're here . I can understand some of your confusion about navigating the site but I think that navigation is pretty specific to the topic you want to know more about. For example, there are a lot of forums on cookie recipe issues (Recipe rescue), royal icing problems, where to find certain types of decorating tools and even machines for those who have a business of selling cookies. One of my favorite places to go is to the tutorials (of which there are many and directed to different levels of cookie decorating experience). There are so many very detailed explanations (with examples) of how to decorate using a variety of techniques (e.g. wet-on-wet, marbling, airbrushing, crackle cookies, wafer paper, etc).

When I want to look for something specific I click on the magnifying glass on the top right of the navigation bar and a field will pop up where you can type in what you are searching for (tutorials for beginner, intermediate and advanced cookiers, royal icing recipes, problems with royal icing such as the colors bleeding into each other, baby shower cookies, etc.). There's such a vast amount of information available here but there's really not a place that's used a lot for cookiers chatting amongst themselves in real time. That would be a nice thing as a LOT of cookiers are very generous with sharing how to do specific techniques. Yes, there are some who don't answer questions about how to achieve a look in a cookie they've decorated, but they are few and far between. For cookie cutters there are a multitude of sites. You can look on Amazon.com, cookiecuttercompany.com, CheapCookieCutters.com, cookiecutterkdom.com, Coppergifts.com, KarensCookies.net, annclarkcookiecutters.com, and so many more. Here's a shark cookie cutter for you: https://www.amazon.com/Ann-Cla...Cutter/dp/B00KJ8M78Q. Really cute. Please don't hesitate to ask any questions at all!! This is a very active community and I love it here . If you want to you can go to my profile and contact me directly with any questions and I'll be happy to answer at any time!!

Another thought is that Julia Usher has done a ton of tutorials from everything such as baking cookies for decorating, royal icing consistencies, stamping on cookies, stenciling, marbling, etc. There are a vast number of tutorials by Julia on her UTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/JuliaMUsher.

I hope this answers some of your questions. I have certainly felt intimidated by and by the level of talent of the cookiers who post their cookies here. But this site is about sharing and learning, not competing .

Welcome!!

Carol (Cookies Fantastique ~ by Carol)

 

Thanks, Carol, for all of this input, and for the shout-out about my YouTube channel.

I have one correction to make and that is that there IS a place to chat real-time with members - we have a 24/7 chat room, which is located under Chats here: http://cookieconnection.juliau...m/casual-cookie-chat. Questions can be posted there at any time, and people who are online can jump in to respond at any time. But questions posted there will disappear after a few days. And you're right, not many people use that area. (I wish they did.) That said, sometimes the fastest way to get a response is to post a forum topic, as Kathi just did. (Though it's always best to search the forums first, because SOOOO many topics have already been asked and answered.) Questions and answers posted to the forums never disappear.

One other thing about live chats: in addition to the 24/7 chat room, we schedule live chats with special guests each month. We have two upcoming scheduled chats - one this weekend about mixing colors with mintlemonade, and another in August with Dolce Sentire, one of our Cookie Connection contributors who writes tutorials for the site. These chats are exceptional ways to learn from some of the industry's greatest experts and to interact with them in real time. Again, you can find these chats just by clicking on "Chats" in the main navigation line, but here's the direct link: https://cookieconnection.juliausher.com/chats

Julia M. Usher posted:

Cookies Fantastique by Carol posted:

Hi Kathi!! I'm so glad you're here . I can understand some of your confusion about navigating the site but I think that navigation is pretty specific to the topic you want to know more about. For example, there are a lot of forums on cookie recipe issues (Recipe rescue), royal icing problems, where to find certain types of decorating tools and even machines for those who have a business of selling cookies. One of my favorite places to go is to the tutorials (of which there are many and directed to different levels of cookie decorating experience). There are so many very detailed explanations (with examples) of how to decorate using a variety of techniques (e.g. wet-on-wet, marbling, airbrushing, crackle cookies, wafer paper, etc).

When I want to look for something specific I click on the magnifying glass on the top right of the navigation bar and a field will pop up where you can type in what you are searching for (tutorials for beginner, intermediate and advanced cookiers, royal icing recipes, problems with royal icing such as the colors bleeding into each other, baby shower cookies, etc.). There's such a vast amount of information available here but there's really not a place that's used a lot for cookiers chatting amongst themselves in real time. That would be a nice thing as a LOT of cookiers are very generous with sharing how to do specific techniques. Yes, there are some who don't answer questions about how to achieve a look in a cookie they've decorated, but they are few and far between. For cookie cutters there are a multitude of sites. You can look on Amazon.com, cookiecuttercompany.com, CheapCookieCutters.com, cookiecutterkdom.com, Coppergifts.com, KarensCookies.net, annclarkcookiecutters.com, and so many more. Here's a shark cookie cutter for you: https://www.amazon.com/Ann-Cla...Cutter/dp/B00KJ8M78Q. Really cute. Please don't hesitate to ask any questions at all!! This is a very active community and I love it here . If you want to you can go to my profile and contact me directly with any questions and I'll be happy to answer at any time!!

Another thought is that Julia Usher has done a ton of tutorials from everything such as baking cookies for decorating, royal icing consistencies, stamping on cookies, stenciling, marbling, etc. There are a vast number of tutorials by Julia on her UTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/JuliaMUsher.

I hope this answers some of your questions. I have certainly felt intimidated by and by the level of talent of the cookiers who post their cookies here. But this site is about sharing and learning, not competing .

Welcome!!

Carol (Cookies Fantastique ~ by Carol)

 

Thanks, Carol, for all of this input, and for the shout-out about my YouTube channel.

I have one correction to make and that is that there IS a place to chat real-time with members - we have a 24/7 chat room, which is located under Chats here: http://cookieconnection.juliau...m/casual-cookie-chat. Questions can be posted there at any time, and people who are online can jump in to respond at any time. But questions posted there will disappear after a few days. And you're right, not many people use that area. (I wish they did.) That said, sometimes the fastest way to get a response is to post a forum topic, as Kathi just did. (Though it's always best to search the forums first, because SOOOO many topics have already been asked and answered.) Questions and answers posted to the forums never disappear.

Thanks Julia for the correction...I think I had read somewhere that was going to be a real time chat place but hadn't seen it (it would help if I had looked in the right place. Lol). Ah yes...I believe you even mentioned that you hoped more people would get involved .

Cookies Fantastique by Carol posted:

Hi Kathi!! I'm so glad you're here . I can understand some of your confusion about navigating the site but I think that navigation is pretty specific to the topic you want to know more about. For example, there are a lot of forums on cookie recipe issues (Recipe rescue), royal icing problems, where to find certain types of decorating tools and even machines for those who have a business of selling cookies. One of my favorite places to go is to the tutorials (of which there are many and directed to different levels of cookie decorating experience). There are so many very detailed explanations (with examples) of how to decorate using a variety of techniques (e.g. wet-on-wet, marbling, airbrushing, crackle cookies, wafer paper, etc).

When I want to look for something specific I click on the magnifying glass on the top right of the navigation bar and a field will pop up where you can type in what you are searching for (tutorials for beginner, intermediate and advanced cookiers, royal icing recipes, problems with royal icing such as the colors bleeding into each other, baby shower cookies, etc.). There's such a vast amount of information available here but there's really not a place that's used a lot for cookiers chatting amongst themselves in real time. That would be a nice thing as a LOT of cookiers are very generous with sharing how to do specific techniques. Yes, there are some who don't answer questions about how to achieve a look in a cookie they've decorated, but they are few and far between. For cookie cutters there are a multitude of sites. You can look on Amazon.com, cookiecuttercompany.com, CheapCookieCutters.com, cookiecutterkdom.com, Coppergifts.com, KarensCookies.net, annclarkcookiecutters.com, and so many more. Here's a shark cookie cutter for you: https://www.amazon.com/Ann-Cla...Cutter/dp/B00KJ8M78Q. Really cute. Please don't hesitate to ask any questions at all!! This is a very active community and I love it here . If you want to you can go to my profile and contact me directly with any questions and I'll be happy to answer at any time!!

Another thought is that Julia Usher has done a ton of tutorials from everything such as baking cookies for decorating, royal icing consistencies, stamping on cookies, stenciling, marbling, etc. There are a vast number of tutorials by Julia on her UTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/JuliaMUsher.

I hope this answers some of your questions. I have certainly felt intimidated by and by the level of talent of the cookiers who post their cookies here. But this site is about sharing and learning, not competing .

Welcome!!

Carol (Cookies Fantastique ~ by Carol)

 

OMG CAROL!!!!!!!!!!!  THANK you for all the info!!!!!!  I guess I will be spending the night on my computer!!!LOL!!  God Bless you!!  kathi  aka crazykat323

Julia M. Usher posted:

Hi, Kathi. First, welcome to the site. I'm sorry to hear you're confused about the navigation. I've tried my best to make it as clear as possible, but there's tons of information here, so it may take a little while to find it all.

Here are some tips for getting started on the site . . . If you haven't read the About section and the FAQ section (under About) yet, then I suggest you do that, as they explain in great detail where you can find various content, and our various posting guidelines.

But quickly, the forums are for posting questions to other members (one question at a time is preferred, with the topic of the question as your title). (For example, you have several question embedded in this post, and they will be very difficult for people to find later, given how the post has been titled and tagged.) The Clips area is for posting photos or videos. The blog is where our contributors post in-depth tutorials, which you can read by clicking on the Blog in the main navigation line and then on the relevant "tutorial" blog collections on the right side of the site.

99.99% of all content that is posted stays on the site forever. Our home page features the content that was most popular in the last 24 hours, but if you click on the links under any of the photo galleries on the home page, you will see all the clips ever posted to the site, listed from most to least recent. You can also access this information by directly clicking  on "Clips" in the main navigation line.

There are also several start-up posts in the forums (which were also sent in your site sign-up letter) that are intended to give newcomers an overview of the site. I'd recommend reading them as well, and I've copied some of them below.

About page: https://cookieconnection.juliausher.com/pages/about
FAQ page: https://cookieconnection.juliausher.com/pages/sitefaq
Posting Guidelines for Clips (aka Images): http://cookieconnection.juliau...READ-BEFORE-YOU-POST
Adjusting Your Email Notifications: http://cookieconnection.juliau...-email-notifications
Quick link to all on-site tutorials: http://cookieconnection.juliau...hnique-tutorials-all

Hope this all helps, and have fun on the site!

THANK YOU  Miss Julia!! I did read a lot of the things you said to read, but I guess I was just too confused & it didnt sink in my old brain!  I LOVE your site!  Went to book store to get your books but they were out of BOTH of them!! GOOD for you, bad for me! LOL.  ( I sent for them now) SO glad posts stay!!  I apologize for posting too many questions! I watched you on a youtube & was fascinated!  Another no sleep night, between PC  searching & you tube!!   PS- I never expected YOU to answer my questions So THANK YOU!!   most sincerely, kathi  aka crazykat323

You're welcome! I try to answer every message I get - I figure if people take the time to ask, the least I can do is honor that time spent with an answer!   Plus, I certainly want to clear up any confusion about the site.

Hi Kathi!

This site is a treasure box, as you will soon find out by yourself and you will see how well organized is... and I tell you: you will learn even more than "as much as you can"! This doesn't happen in one day, but it doesn't take that long either if you are really passionate about cookie decorating, you will have fun in the process and receive lot of support from this cookie community (this is my experience, I still remember the comments to the first cookie I posted, Carol's was one of them).

As an absolute beginner with Royal Icing, I watched Julia's videos tutorial on Youtube last November (Carol also suggested to you). There are tons of video tutorials on Youtube, but I find that Julia's videos not only give you fundations, they are clear and follow a straight path. This is very important to start but also to take the best from a cookie class, from a tutorial or from a picture of cookies.

This is the path I follow as a newbie, hope it may help you:

•Read the start-up posts as Julia suggested you. It may sounds boring, but it is important to understand what is the purpouse of her site and the guidelines and the FAQ are a good compass.

•Read the previous blog posts, there is a lot of interesting material. You find a detailed list under "Blog/Collection" from where you can choose what you like. Here's the quick link:
https://cookieconnection.juliausher.com/collections
I started by reading the "featured" blog posts that you find under Blog/Featured. Here's the quick link:
http://cookieconnection.juliau...ured=true&page=1
Here you have a little bit of everything posted: interviews with cookiers, weekly top 10, tutorials, Julia's posts... then you could go to the Blog Collection if you are interested to read more on a specific topic. But this give you an idea of what it has been posted every month and you will start to wait for a specific post to come out because you know it is time.

•Have a look to the cookies posted everyday. In the home page, it is the slide show in the middle. Julia explained in her answer how to see them all. Click on the pic and read the comments, many cookiers share techniques and tips and sometimes there are links to their blogs with tutorials. If you like a particular cookie or cookie cutter then you can ask directly to the cookier where you could buy it. I suggest you not to buy so many gadgets at the beginning, but to buy even more of them when you have a clear idea of what you like to do. In the slide show on the top there are the best cookies of the day among the cookies posted everyday.

•Participate to the bimonthly Challenge, hosted by Christine @Bakerloo Station (site contributor). This is another great way to learn. You find the entries in the slide show at the bottom, in the home page. Under that slide show you'll find also the link to the entry info of the current Challenges.

•Follow the live chats. As Julia mentioned there are two upcoming live chats. You are lucky, one of them is this Saturday with Mintlemonade, moderated by Tina @Sugar Wishes. She bakes beautiful cookies and she will talk about her wonderful color palette. Lot to learn about this single topic. To view her cookies search for Mintlemonade, go to her profile page, click on Activity and then Content. You will see her activity stream and maybe you will have questions for her. Quick link: http://cookieconnection.juliau...tivity?group=CONTENT

The other one is in August with Dolce Sentire, another great contributor of this site. Lot to learn from great cookiers and interact live. To see her activity stream do the same as for Mintlemonade.

•Read the old tutorials of Aixa @Dolce Sentire, Lucy @Honeycat, Leoni @ Laegwen. They are so well explained with step-by-step pics, that it is worth to read also the advanced tutorial even if you are a beginner.

•Read the Toolbox Talk by Liesbet - cookie tools and ingredients from all over the world, differences and similarities. Very interesting, and in the post comments also lot to learn.

The 24/7 room is not used very much, I go check sometimes, but maybe it is something you can help to take off, as you are interested in cookie discussion at night. Be ready to chat with somebody on the other side of the world!

Anyway, I am late in my answer and I hope I helped you somehow and didn't add more confusion. But you already started to find your way by posting your questions in this forum and looking for Julia's book.

Looking forward to seeing your cookies soon!

Awesome input, Manu! It's also extremely helpful for me to read how you got started on the site, and what parts you rely on most heavily. I've learned a lot that can be used to tailor start-up messages and other things, so thank you! 

Thank you so much Julia, I wasn't so sure to post this message as you and Carol already said a lot, but I signed in seven months ago and the path is still fresh. I am so passionate about cookies that at the beginning, to catch up with the last three yrs of life of the site, for every new cookie posted I was going to see the content stream of the cookier. And the link to the featured blog is saved on my cell phone, so when I need to kill time in line I go reading posts.

I am glad that was helpful for you... and you know already how your tut and site have been helpful for me.

Manu posted:

Hi Kathi!

This site is a treasure box, as you will soon find out by yourself and you will see how well organized is... and I tell you: you will learn even more than "as much as you can"! This doesn't happen in one day, but it doesn't take that long either if you are really passionate about cookie decorating, you will have fun in the process and receive lot of support from this cookie community (this is my experience, I still remember the comments to the first cookie I posted, Carol's was one of them).

As an absolute beginner with Royal Icing, I watched Julia's videos tutorial on Youtube last November (Carol also suggested to you). There are tons of video tutorials on Youtube, but I find that Julia's videos not only give you fundations, they are clear and follow a straight path. This is very important to start but also to take the best from a cookie class, from a tutorial or from a picture of cookies.

This is the path I follow as a newbie, hope it may help you:

•Read the start-up posts as Julia suggested you. It may sounds boring, but it is important to understand what is the purpouse of her site and the guidelines and the FAQ are a good compass.

•Read the previous blog posts, there is a lot of interesting material. You find a detailed list under "Blog/Collection" from where you can choose what you like. Here's the quick link:
https://cookieconnection.juliausher.com/collections
I started by reading the "featured" blog posts that you find under Blog/Featured. Here's the quick link:
http://cookieconnection.juliau...ured=true&page=1
Here you have a little bit of everything posted: interviews with cookiers, weekly top 10, tutorials, Julia's posts... then you could go to the Blog Collection if you are interested to read more on a specific topic. But this give you an idea of what it has been posted every month and you will start to wait for a specific post to come out because you know it is time.

•Have a look to the cookies posted everyday. In the home page, it is the slide show in the middle. Julia explained in her answer how to see them all. Click on the pic and read the comments, many cookiers share techniques and tips and sometimes there are links to their blogs with tutorials. If you like a particular cookie or cookie cutter then you can ask directly to the cookier where you could buy it. I suggest you not to buy so many gadgets at the beginning, but to buy even more of them when you have a clear idea of what you like to do. In the slide show on the top there are the best cookies of the day among the cookies posted everyday.

•Participate to the bimonthly Challenge, hosted by Christine @Bakerloo Station (site contributor). This is another great way to learn. You find the entries in the slide show at the bottom, in the home page. Under that slide show you'll find also the link to the entry info of the current Challenges.

•Follow the live chats. As Julia mentioned there are two upcoming live chats. You are lucky, one of them is this Saturday with Mintlemonade, moderated by Tina @Sugar Wishes. She bakes beautiful cookies and she will talk about her wonderful color palette. Lot to learn about this single topic. To view her cookies search for Mintlemonade, go to her profile page, click on Activity and then Content. You will see her activity stream and maybe you will have questions for her. Quick link: http://cookieconnection.juliau...tivity?group=CONTENT

The other one is in August with Dolce Sentire, another great contributor of this site. Lot to learn from great cookiers and interact live. To see her activity stream do the same as for Mintlemonade.

•Read the old tutorials of Aixa @Dolce Sentire, Lucy @Honeycat, Leoni @ Laegwen. They are so well explained with step-by-step pics, that it is worth to read also the advanced tutorial even if you are a beginner.

•Read the Toolbox Talk by Liesbet - cookie tools and ingredients from all over the world, differences and similarities. Very interesting, and in the post comments also lot to learn.

The 24/7 room is not used very much, I go check sometimes, but maybe it is something you can help to take off, as you are interested in cookie discussion at night. Be ready to chat with somebody on the other side of the world!

Anyway, I am late in my answer and I hope I helped you somehow and didn't add more confusion. But you already started to find your way by posting your questions in this forum and looking for Julia's book.

Looking forward to seeing your cookies soon!

 

Wonderful Manu!!! I learned a lot in what you posted here too. Lol. And thank you for kindly remembering my comment on one of your beautiful cookies! That means a lot to me . You're so right that no matter what level you're at in cookie decorating every tutorial is of value and I watch them all!! You mentioned a few things that I wasn't even aware of on the site and I'm here fairly often...thank you!

Kathi, I look forward to seeing some of your cookie designs soon . And thank YOU for the kind words you wrote to me when I first responded to your post. So sweet...